A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Chapter 1 Anaylsis

A 2-3 page analysis of the first chapter in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Submitted:Jan 18, 2010
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Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Analysis Throughout the first
chapter of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce
uses Stephen to paint a portrait of himself as young child. Many of
the things said about Stephen seem to match up with his life as a
child. From the beginning, one of Stephens's main features is his
development with words and there meanings. On the first page you
are aware of Stephen being a young child by using words used such
as moocow or baby tuckoo. Among the people Stephen encounters,
Joyce attempts to use words that are suitable and appropriate to
the mind of Stephen. For example every time Stephen thinks or talks
about Eileen the same descriptions come up with how her hands are
cold and soft like ivory. " The word was beautiful: wine. It made
you think of dark purple because the grapes were dark purple that
grew in Greece outside houses like white temples." The deeper the
story goes there is more development with Stephen and what he
thinks of words and what they remind him of. When something happens
to Stephen he always seems to associate it with a feeling of some
sort. This is a beginning stage of Stephen's development as an
artist. When Stephen is pushed into the dirty water, he continues
to associate it in his mind with slimy and cold. "… the quiet air
the sound of the cricket bats: pick, pack, pock, puck: like drops
of water in a fountain falling softly in the brimming bowl."
Stephen is thinking this after he has told the rector that he was
falsely accused. I think that it seems like the noises of the
cricket bats seemed to calm him, and remind him that everything is
back to how it used to be. Being a reader of this book, you are
able to see both an internal and external view of Stephen. As a
reader you must differentiate between Stephen's actions and his
thoughts. Joyce does a good job at giving both views for a specific
event. When Father Arnall is about to pandy Stephen you see
Stephens anguish and fright from an onlooker perspective, " A hot
burning stinging tingling blow like the loud crack of a broken
stick made his trembling hand crumble together like a leaf in the
fire." but when it is over and he is thinking about what happened
it is in the view of Stephen's thoughts. " How could the prefect of
studies know that it was a trick?" I felt very sympathetic for
Stephen, I didn't understand why he was being punished for
something that he didn't do and even if he did do that he wouldn't
have deserved to be pandied. But when you see how scared and
frightened Stephen was it made it seem very important. When Mr.
Dedalus tells Stephen that he heard about the incident and talked
with the rector about it and they laughed about it that makes it
seem like it was a joke. When the Dedalus family begins to lose
their money and also lose all there furniture in their house. It
usually seems to be something that would make you depressed, but
for Stephen he avoids depression by only focusing on his imaginary
world. This might be because he doesn't understand what it is going
on but it also could be his way of coping with it. Since Stephen
isn't in school he goes on long walks on his own through Dublin, on
these long walks he goes on crazy adventures. Stephen based these
adventures on the book the Count of Monte Cristo. Stephen is very
inward, and keeps all his strong feelings locked in side this is
shown in: " He wanted to meet in the real world the unsubstantial
image which his soul constantly beheld." Stephen had all these
feelings he expressed partly through his imagination but the all
rest of his feelings were locked inside and he didn't know how to
release him. In the first chapter of A Portrait of an Artist as a
Young Man Joyce uses a fictional character, Stephen to paint a
portrait of himself as a child. Most of the occurrences in this
story are based off a James Joyce's childhood, and where he grew
up. Stephen's artistic development is a big part of how he as a
character grows up and how it relates back to Joyce's life.